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The Commoner.
Issued !Aeek.ly.
TormB Payable in Advance,
One Tear $1.00
Six Months 60
Three Months 26
Single Oopy At Newstands or at this Office 05
No Traveling Canvassers Are Employed.
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be sent by postofilce order, express order or by bank
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checks, stamps, or money.
Advertising rates furnished upon application. Address
all communications to
THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Nebraska.
Entered at the postoffice at Lincoln, Nebraska, as second
class mail matter.
i -
The Commoner repeats tlio statement mado
in the first number that it is not its purpose
or desire to supplant the local weekly news
paper. There should "be in every community, or
at loast in every county, a faithful and fearless
weekly paper to defend the rights of the people
and to champion their interests. It is impossible
to overestimate the value of such a paper, and it
should receive tho constant and cordial support of
those whoso interests it guards. The democratic
party must largely rely upon these papers for tho
spread of information and wholesome political
doctrine. Tun Commoner would not, if it could,
take away a single subscriber from such papers;
on the contrary, it aims to encourage and strength
en them.
There is, however, a field for a paper devoted to
tho discussion of problems, political, economic
and social, which affect tho people of the entiro
country. Tho local weeklies, of course, treat of
these to a certain extent: but so much space must
be given to oity, county and state matters that
they cannot possibly discuss them as thoroughly
as a paper devoted exclusively to such question.
The local papers and The Commoner will bo mu
tually helpful a convert made by either will re
dound to tho advautage of tho other, and they
will work together for tho restoration of the gov
ernment to its old foundations and for equal and
exact justioe for all.
Mr. Gage, socrotary of tho treasury, knows
moro about countervailing duties now than he did
a few weeks ago.
Tho indications are that long before Tesla
gets a telegraphio message through the earth Mor
gan will have a railroad around it.
Is it possible that Denmark thought we would
search tho Danish West Indies for an "insurrec
tion" before paying down the money?
American manufacturers of machinery who
have been shipping their wares to Russia will
not sign anymore of Mr. Oxnard's petitions.
Senator Jones gave the republicans an oppor
tunity to redeem their promises on the trust ques
tion, but they would not even consider the nieas-
The Commoner.
ure passed last summer by a republican House of
Representatives. And still some republicans will
insist that their party is opposed to trusts.
It is slowly but surely dawning upon the minds
of the high tariff advocates that "protection" is
a game that more than one nation can play.
The cable reports that "ten columns are pur
suing De Wet. " But DeWet evidently reads the date
line and then skips to tho last paragraph, which .
is usually "I regret to state."
President Iladley, of Yale, says the old-fashioned
ideal legislature was a place where ideas
were exchanged. Old-fashioned, certainly, but
hardly the ideal, according to modern definitions.
$$
Mr. Rockefeller might add to his modest in
come by establishing a correspondence school.
Ho could give instruction in the art of getting
rich quickly and confer the "Coal Oil Degree"
upon graduates. '
A man by the name of J. Matt Ward has been
representing himself as "Formerly private secre
tary to William J. Bryan." As the representa
tion is not true, and as ho has already imposed
upon some, this notice is given for the protection
of the public.
By talking a great deal and returning to Eng
land at just the right time, General Roberts sot
cured a string of titles as long as a freight train.
By remaining on the spot and doing things DeWet
has earned a fame which is worth a freight train
full of such titles as " Bobs " wears.
Possibly the republicans might be willing to
waive tho other seven conditions if the Cubans
would accept condition number four, and promise
not to disturb the "lawful rights acquired" in
Cuba by tho men who have been down there look
ing after franchises and concessions.
"The United States .will not set little Cuba
adrift without pilot or lifeboat," says the Kansas
City Journal. No, indeed. If the republican
leaders have their way Cuba will not be allowed
to go near tho water until she is willing to take
second class passage on Uncle Sam's Ship of State.
The report that Mr. P. S. Knox, of Pittsburg,
Pa., is soon to-succeed Mr. Griggs of New Jer
seyas attorney general in the cabinet, seems to
be well founded. Mr. Knox is the attorney for
about every steel, iron, coal and railway corpora
tion having headquarters in Pittsburg or vicinity.
Mr. Hanna probably visited the file room be
fore the hour of adjournment, and bade an affec
tionate farewell to the anti-trust bill which was
rushed through the House of Representatives with
a great florish of trumpets at the opening of the
campaign, but hich has been quietly sleeping in
a senate committee ever since.
Of all the mean tricks played upon a confid
ing people, tho one played by the British govern
ment on the kind American friends who sub
scribed for the British war loan is tho worst.
No sooner does Great Britain get the American
dollars for British bonds than Gieat Britain turns
around and exacts an inoome tax from the holders
and takes it out of the interest
Admiral Sampson has'vindicated the judgment
of those who opposed his promotion over Schley
by protesting against the promotion of ensigns
on the ground that they aro not sufficiently well
acquainted with "social graces." What the navy
needs is fewer men like Sampson and moro com
missioned men of good, hard American horse sense.
$
Because he obeyed tho plain mandate of tho
Dingley law and raised the duty on Russian
sugar, Mr. Secretary Gage is being roundly de
nounced by the Chicago Inter-Ocean, which same
paper was quito sure the country would go to
ruin immediately in case the Dingley bill was
not passed just as it came from the ways and
means committee.
The new Morgan-Harriman-Rockcfeller rail
road syndicate has been organized under the laws
of New Jersey and capitalized for $3,000. Of
the three thousand dollars capitalization $200,
000,000 will bo in 5 per cent bonds, $400,000,
000 in 1 per cent preferred stock and $400,000,
000 in common stock. It takes financiers like
Morgan, Harriman and Rockefeller to make a
round billion out of a paltry $3,000. N
Senator Allen took occasion to express his
own opinion, and, it might be added, the opinion
of the country also, on Sampson's letter to Sec
retary Long. The Admiral seems to think that
some men are born to "lead men among the crew,''
while others are born to lead the german at social
gatherings. But the people at large are not yet
ready to say that a man of merit can be excluded
from any branch of the public service because in
his youth he lacked "certain natural advantages."
As between snobs who know all about social
duties and demand all the honors for a victory
won while they were twenty miles away, and men
who know how to fight better than they know how to
dance and indulge in social chit-chat, the American
people will take the latter every time, Admiral
William T. Sampson, the man behind the horizon,
to the contrary notwithstanding. It was the men
without "social accomplishments" who whipped
Spain, while the carpet seamen wore either away
without permission or dancing in Washington
when not drawing plans that worried their bet
ters. The time will never come in America at
least it never should come when worth is meas
ured by ability to shine in social circles.
?..
w
Robby Ray, a six-year-old boy at Kcntuck, W.
Va., entered a burning house in order to rescue
the baby of his family. The lad was overcome
with smoke and burned -to death with the infant
whose life he sought to save. Tho little fellow's
body was found near the baby's cradle. All of
the heroes of the world are not men and women.
Love for our fellows and affection for those who
are tied to us by blood often assert themselves
earlier in life, and real heroism, whether it be
displayed on the part of matured men and women
or on the part of a six-year-old West Virginia
child, furnishes food for thought for those inolined
to pessimism.
The way in which Mark Twain' s magazine art
icle has stirred up tho imperialists recalls "an expe
rience of John Allen, the great congressional hu
morist. Allen generally weaves a story into a speech
and the story always illustrates and strengthens
A.
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